OTTAWA — Fresh off a trip to the impoverished First Nation community of Attawapiskat, NDP interim leader Nycole Turmel called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to visit it himself — and stop dwelling on money.

“These people don’t have a place to live. These people are living in sheds. These people are living in tents without their kids around,” she said.

“I would love this Prime Minister to go there and maybe he won’t talk about money, he will talk about the people.”

Harper has defended his government’s response to the plight of Attawapiskat’s 2,100 residents, saying the community has received some $90-million in government funding since the Conservatives took office.

“Obviously, we are not very happy that the results do not seem to have been achieved for that. We are concerned about that. We have officials looking into it and taking action,” he said Tuesday in the House of Commons.

Turmel said what she wants in the short-term is a plan for people to live in a “decent place.”

“In the long-term, we need to have discussions with First Nations and this government needs to take some leadership.”

Angus said he had the opportunity to sit down with community officials and examine the books. Much of the budget, he said, is spent on education, yet it remains grossly underfunded compared to other jurisdictions. The rest goes to social costs and a mere $500,000 is spent on affordable housing.

He said the community is in debt because of a costly sewage crisis two years ago.

“I don’t know why, after a month of inaction, when we have emergency measures and the Red Cross doing disaster humanitarian relief, [Harper is] trying to misrepresent the facts,” Angus said.

“What we’re seeing here is compounded crisis from chronic underfunding and time and time again, the federal government walks away.”

Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae said Harper should not only visit Attawapiskat but other First Nations communities, as this is not a “one-off problem.”

The answer, he said, lies in self-government.

“Basically we have communities that have no economic base, that have no tax base, that have no revenue base and that only rely on transfers from the federal government,”he said.

Allison Dempster/CBC NewsAttawapiskat

“We are reaching a crisis point here where we need to understand that things have gone on a certain way and they have to change dramatically.”

Rob Clarke, an aboriginal Conservative MP who represents a northern Saskatchewan riding, said the federal government should consider third-party management of Attawapiskat and doubts the federal dollars invested in the community are being properly allocated.

“I just see a breakdown in the community, in the programming and the management system, and I think that has to be addressed first,” he said, adding third-party management “could be an option.”

He said he would like to see where all the federal money are being spent in the community and argues it’s probably not “being properly allocated for departments, for health care and social programs.”

OTTAWA — As the federal Conservative government searches for billions of dollars in budget cuts, it does so knowing the federal public service has swollen by one-third over the past decade — far outpacing the growth in the population.

Briefing notes prepared for Treasury Board president Tony Clement — who is leading the multibillion-dollar review of government programs — show federal public service employment grew at an average of nearly three per cent a year between 2000-01 and 2010-11.

The documents, obtained by Postmedia News in an access to information request, note the population of the federal public service (core public servants) soared 34 per cent over the past decade, to 282,955 last year from 211,925 a decade earlier. The increase is nearly 40 per cent if you compare it to the number of employees in the late 1990s.

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At the same time, the Canadian population increased approximately 11 per cent to almost 34 million people in 2010, compared to around 30.5 million in 2000.

The federal bureaucracy was slashed during the former Liberal government’s sweeping program review in the mid- to late 1990s, which also instituted a hiring and wage freeze on government. Total federal public service employees dropped to around 204,000 in 1998 from more than 250,000 in the early 1990s, say the documents.

However, the number of public servants has soared over the past decade or so, especially during the nearly six years the Harper government has been in office.

“Between the end of ‘Program Review’ and 2010, the federal public service population increased by 39 per cent and is now 13 per cent larger than what it was two decades ago,” say the briefing notes, which were provided to Clement in the spring.

“From 1990 to 2000, all regions of Canada saw declines in federal public service employment levels,” the documents say. “Since then, all regions have posted employment gains.”

By far, the largest gains have come in the National Capital Region around Ottawa, with the growth in jobs coming from knowledge-based positions in several categories: executive; economics and social sciences; computer systems; and law.

Despite recent growth trends, the number of federal public servants per 100 Canadians is lower now than it was prior to the program review in the 1990s, according to the notes. In 2010, the public service comprised 0.83 per cent of the Canadian population, which remains below the figure from the 1980s and early 1990s of close to one per cent.

The size of the total federal public sector (which includes core public servants as well as the RCMP, Canadian Forces personnel and Crown Corporations) has grown 25 per cent, to more than 530,000 employees in 2010 from around 423,000 a decade earlier.

Clement is leading an ongoing operating review that is searching for $1 billion in cuts for the next fiscal year, $2 billion for 2013-14, and $4 billion by 2014-15. Nearly 70 government departments and agencies are required to submit scenarios for a five- and 10-per-cent cut to their budgets.

The government is relying on the savings to help eliminate a $31-billion deficit by 2015-16 at the earliest, a year later than initially hoped.

Clement was unavailable for comment on Tuesday, but has promised in recent days that the federal government won’t be dogmatic in its cost cutting. He said the government hasn’t made any final decisions on cuts, although some of them are expected to be unveiled in the spring budget.

“We’re not looking at it from an ideological point of view. We’re looking at it from a common sense point of view to see whether there’s a practical, pragmatic way to deliver better services to Canadians,” Clement said late last week at a House of Commons committee meeting.

Since the Conservatives took office in 2006, some of the federal departments and agencies with the largest absolute growth include the Department of National Defence (nearly 5,000 more employees), Correctional Services Canada (more than 3,000 new workers) and the Canada Border Services Agency (close to 2,600 more employees).

The fastest-growing departments in percentage increase since 2006 include the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (62 per cent), Treasury Board Secretariat (61 per cent) and Canada School of Public Service (57 per cent).

“There has obviously been a radical increase in the head count of the federal public service,” said Gregory Thomas, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

The spending watchdog is calling for direct job cuts but cautions the government about slashing some positions and then having to pay severance and rehire in the coming years.

“Cut deep, cut hard. Canada needs a balanced budget way more than it needs a bunch of pork barrelling regional development programs from Ottawa,” he added.

Some observers say public sector job cuts are probably needed, but they urge the government to carefully consider the economic fallout on communities.

Government employees provide valuable services to Canadians but also spur local economies by purchasing homes and vehicles, noted Edward Jackson, associate professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University in Ottawa and a frequent adviser to governments.

Moreover, the government must consider renewing the public service with talented people, not simply cutting any fat in the bureaucracy, he said.

“I’m sure there are things to cut. There’s no question it’s a time to really look hard at these things,” Jackson said.

“But if you lose good quality jobs in this economic context, I’m not sure you’re doing the Canadian economy any favours.”

Postmedia News

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/huge-growth-in-public-servants-under-tories/feed/11stdCanadian Prime Minister Harper gives a speech during the concluding session at a pre-summit business forum ahead of CHOGM in PerthNot yet on job, new auditor general asked to cut his own budgethttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/not-yet-on-job-new-auditor-general-asked-to-cut-his-own-budget
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/not-yet-on-job-new-auditor-general-asked-to-cut-his-own-budget#commentsThu, 24 Nov 2011 02:44:31 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=112628

By Jason Fekete

OTTAWA — New federal auditor general Michael Ferguson starts his job Monday and is already staring down cuts to his office budget and staff in the coming years.

Ferguson begins his 10-year appointment as Canada’s top spending watchdog amid continuing controversy about his inability to speak French, even though the job posting said “proficiency in both official languages is essential.”

But he also now must deal with looming cuts announced Wednesday by Interim Auditor General John Wiersema, who has been searching for efficiencies in the AG’s office as the government looks to chop $4 billion annually from the federal budget by 2014-15.

Wiersema told the House of Commons public accounts committee the AG’s office will, by 2014-15, cut around $6.5 million (close to 8%) of its $88-million annual budget. Doing so will see approximately 60 employees (10% of the staff) lose their jobs, including some auditors.

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The AG’s office will also stop performing separate financial audits of close to 20 small government agencies, boards and commissions, but legislation will need to be changed before that can happen, he said.

However, the office will still conduct the kind of performance audits that uncovered spending problems and rule breaking in matters such as the Liberal sponsorship scandal and controversial expenditures on the G8 Summit.

“We were strategic about (the cuts) and focused on where we think we can get the best value for the buck, and that affects both audits and non-audit work,” Wiersema told Postmedia News following the meeting.

“We would not have proposed these cuts if we didn’t think it was the right thing to do and that we’d be able to carry out our role for Parliament.”

Treasury Board president Tony Clement is leading the governmentwide operating and spending review, and has told nearly 70 departments and agencies to come forward with two proposed scenarios — a five- and 10-per-cent trim to their budgets.

The cuts to the auditor general, while offered up by the office, are some of the first to come to light from the streamlining facing the dozens of government departments and agencies.

Liberal MP Gerry Byrne, a member of the public accounts committee, said the auditor general’s office routinely improves government performance and saves taxpayer dollars. He figures the AG’s office might only be offering up cuts because of government pressure.

“It has been made evidently clear that a robust office of the auditor general as well as a strengthened internal audit capacity has improved accountability and actually improved government performance,” Byrne said.

As the new AG prepares to start his $334,500-a-year job Monday, Byrne said the Liberals “have great confidence” in Ferguson’s capacity as an auditor, but still have “very serious concerns” about his lack of proficiency in French.

Wiersema said Ferguson “will make a very good auditor general” but knows he must improve his French.

OTTAWA — Oilsands production in Canada will likely triple by 2035, making it the overwhelming source of Canadian crude oil and opening doors to additional energy exports, says a new report from the National Energy Board.

The NEB says massive growth in oilsands development, coupled with a moderate increase in Canadian energy demand, means the amount of net crude oil available for export will more than triple over the next 25 years — good news for a federal government eyeing new energy export markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

Unconventional energy production — including development of the oilsands and shale gas — will emerge as the “dominant source of supply growth” over the next quarter-century, according to the NEB, Canada’s energy regulator.

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But the growth in oilsands production is sure to spark additional criticism about developing the so-called “dirty oil” and its impacts on land, air and water.

The European Union is considering a fuel quality standard that would penalize the oilsands, while the Obama administration has delayed a decision until 2013 on the contentious Keystone XL pipeline that has sparked mass protests in the United States.

As conventional crude production continues to decline in Canada over the next quarter century, oilsands production will triple during that time to 5.1 million barrels per day, from the current 1.7 million, the board predicts.

The ramping up of bitumen production will see the oilsands increase its share of Canada’s total oil supply to 85 per cent by 2035, up significantly from the current 54 per cent, says the regulator’s report.

“We’re very much aware that we have oil that the world needs and wants and we can really in a responsible way become a source of energy security for the world,” federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Tuesday about the NEB report.

“We need to diversify our customer base.”

Under its mid-range forecast, the NEB says total crude oil available for export will increase 148 per cent over the next quarter-century to five million barrels a day.

But Nathan Lemphers, a senior policy analyst with the Pembina Institute, an Alberta-based environmental think-tank, said governments and industry must address the mounting environmental challenges with oilsands development if Canada is to reach its energy potential.

“It may be possible to have that level of production, but you’ll start to have more and more problems — just like they’re having with Keystone XL or the fuel quality directive — until you start addressing the oilsands’ environmental impact,” Lemphers said.

“If any growth is to be seen from that industry, there will need to be a marked improvement in environmental management and regulation in the industry.”

The U.S. government’s decision to delay a ruling on the $7-billion Keystone XL oilsands pipeline, while it looks at rerouting it, has the federal government eyeing Asian markets for Canadian petroleum exports.

Currently, Canada only ships oilsands crude to the United States. Keystone XL would carry up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from northern Alberta to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

“Canada can and will provide Asia with the resources it needs to fuel the rapid pace of its economic expansion,” Oliver said Tuesday.

Canada’s energy hopes are very much pinned on Enbridge’s $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline, which would ship oilsands bitumen from northern Alberta to port in Kitimat, B.C., where oil would be loaded onto tankers for export to Asia.

The Northern Gateway project is currently under review by the NEB and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. The pipeline could be operational by 2017.

The NEB report notes Canada currently has 173 billion barrels of remaining proven oil reserves, 98 per cent of which is located in the oilsands. However, the country has “ultimate potential” of 343 billion barrels, it says.

OTTAWA — Federal spending jumped 22% in the first five years the Harper Conservatives were in power, says a government of Canada performance report, released Thursday.

A good chunk of the increase was due to tens of billions of dollars in stimulus spending across the country during the economic downturn, but mounting health-care costs also contributed to the spike.

Federal expenditures in 2010-11 totalled $270.5-billion, compared with $222.2-billion in 2006-07 — the Harper government’s first full year in power — according to the annual federal government performance report, introduced Thursday in the House of Commons.

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“Program spending had its most significant jump in growth between fiscal years 2008-09 and 2009-10, increasing from 13% to 16% of gross domestic product,” says the report.

“During this period, through Canada’s Economic Action Plan, the government invested in short- and long-term measures to counteract the effects of the global economic downturn.”

The federal government’s stimulus spending totalled $24.9-billion in 2009-10 and $20-billion in 2010-11, according to Finance Department numbers.

However, the Harper government is now in the midst of an ongoing strategic operating review that is searching for $1-billion in cuts for next year, $2-billion for 2013-14, and $4-billion by 2014-15. Nearly 70 government departments and agencies are required to submit scenarios for a five and 10% cut to their budgets.

At the same time, federal health spending continues to grow via larger transfers to the provinces.

The Canada Health Transfer is Ottawa’s largest allocation to the provinces and will continue to grow by 6% annually as part of a federal-provincial health accord that expires in 2013-14.

The CHT will reach $27-billion in 2011-12 and more than $30-billion by 2013-14. Total spending on the public medical system in Canada is roughly $135-billion.

The federal performance report notes Canada spends far more per capita than the average of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

Total health spending accounted for 11.4% of Canada’s GDP in 2009 compared with an average of 9.5% across OECD countries. Canada’s health spending per person was valued at US$4,363, with the OECD average being US$3,223.

Spending watchdogs say the large increase in expenditures over the past five years can be attributed to the economic downturn but also to a minority Parliament for most of that time.

“You’ve had a lot of instability and historically, [governments] spend like a drunken sailor in minority,” said Gregory Thomas, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Thomas figures studies ultimately will show the federal stimulus spending did more long-term harm to the Canadian economy than short-term good. Nevertheless, the government has promised to get its fiscal house in order, he noted.

OTTAWA — Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is expected to release his fall economic update on Tuesday in Calgary — and he’ll likely confirm the government won’t meet its 2014-15 target for eliminating the deficit.

The Conservative government, Bank of Canada and parliamentary budget officer have all downgraded their economic projections over the past few weeks, and Tuesday’s fall update will reflect the sluggish forecasts.

Flaherty is expected to deliver the refreshed fiscal outlook during a speech to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, and it’s believed he’ll confirm the government won’t be able to meet its target for balancing the books.

The finance minister announced two weeks ago that, based on the average projections of 15 private-sector economists he regularly consults, the government was trimming the country’s economic forecast for the next few years.

Flaherty predicted Canada won’t sink back into recession unless it experiences a “dramatic shock” from the European debt crisis that continues to threaten the global economy.

But at the time, he hinted the government would not be able to balance the books by its target, and instead would look to eliminate the projected $32.3-billion deficit over the “medium term.”

Tuesday’s economic statement likely will update the government’s revenue and spending projections, including whether the forecast deficit for this year has changed.

The Tories are in the midst of an ongoing strategic operating review that is searching for $4 billion in annual cuts.

Flaherty has a number of tools at his disposal, including: slowing the spending cuts; developing a broader jobs plan such as opposition parties are demanding; delaying planned corporate tax cuts; or even halting a pending increase to employment insurance premiums.

The government plans to increase employment insurance premium rates from $1.78 (per $100 of insurable earnings) in 2011 to $2.28 by 2016, according to Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page.

Late Monday, CTV reported the rates will indeed rise in 2012, but not as much as some had anticipated. Employers will pay seven cents more per $100 and employees, five cents more per $100, according to the report.

The general corporate income tax rate is slated to fall to 15 per cent on Jan. 1, 2012 from the current 16.5 per cent.

Political observers and economists aren’t expecting dramatic changes from Flaherty’s economic update, and aren’t certain now is the time to make any bold moves.

“The level of uncertainty is just too high to leap dramatically in one direction or another. I think we’ll see a fair degree of caution,” predicted Roger Gibbins, president of the Canada West Foundation, a Calgary-based think-tank.

“The update will sort of signal caution going into the spring budget without committing the government to anything dramatic in terms of either cutbacks or stimulus.”

The government is wise to protract its timeline for balancing the books if the economic signs demand it, Gibbins added, saying now is not the time for the Conservatives to be dogmatic in their deficit fight.

“Sometimes promises deserve to be broken in light of changing circumstances,” he said.

The Conservative government now forecasts real GDP growth in Canada at 2.2 per cent in 2011— down significantly from the 2.9 per cent projected in March.

The economic outlook for 2012 is also noticeably weaker than initially forecast, with real growth in gross domestic product now expected at 2.1 per cent next year, compared to 2.8 per cent projected in March.

The level of economic growth in 2013 also has been trimmed, down to 2.5 per cent from 2.7 per cent projected earlier this year.

“We need to maintain the fiscal track to get back to balanced budgets. So we intend to stay on course to get to a balanced budget in the medium term,” the minister said two weeks ago, upon delivering the updated GDP numbers.

The government has vowed to be “flexible and pragmatic” to maintain economic growth in Canada, but has continued to resist NDP calls for potentially billions of dollars in stimulus spending to spur job growth in Canada.

Last week, Canada’s parliamentary budget officer predicted slower economic growth and higher unemployment in Canada than the Harper government, saying the country’s books probably won’t be balanced until 2016-17 at the earliest.

The slower-than-expected growth is likely to increase unemployment to eight per cent in 2012 and 2013 (compared to 7.4 per cent this year), which translates into 100,000 more unemployed Canadians by next year, according to the parliamentary budget officer.

It will also generate smaller federal tax revenues and larger budget deficits — making it almost impossible for the government to meet its target of balancing the books by 2014-15, the report said.

Flaherty, however, disagreed with the assessment, saying last week, that Canada is well on its way to eliminating the deficit.

“We are on track, we are seeing modest growth in Canada this year. This is relatively good,” Flaherty said.

Last week, Page told the House of Commons finance committee that the government has “a healthy plan” for eliminating the deficit, but said the June 2011 budget projections “are no longer realistic.”

Alberta’s provincial Tories are set to elect a new premier who will play an important national role in managing what many believe is both an economic lifeline and black eye for Canada — developing the carbon-intensive oilsands.

Progressive Conservative members in Wild Rose Country will hold Saturday the first of a possible two votes to determine their next party leader and — depending on who captures the crown — a potential new approach to oilsands production and addressing the environmental consequences.

The federal and provincial Tory governments have faced rapid fire from around the globe over the past five years over the growing ecological footprint of developing what critics have dubbed “dirty oil.”

And the contenders in the race to be leader insist Alberta’s next premier must be more proactive, in both action and words, to improve the province’s and country’s environmental credentials.

“The fact is that this is a legitimate conversation that needs to be had. It’s not going to go away. We can’t dismiss it and we shouldn’t,” said Alison Redford, the lone woman in the field of six candidates vying to replace Premier Ed Stelmach.

“We also have a responsibility to work in partnership with other provinces and with the federal government to make it as clean as we possibly can.”

In the United States, lawmakers have lobbed scathing attacks at the oil sands and adopted clean-fuel standards that would exclude bitumen-derived petroleum.

Environmental groups and concerned citizens have launched repeated appeals — including during a two-week protest outside the White House — for the Obama administration to block construction of the Keystone XL pipeline that would ship oilsands crude from northern Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast.

Hollywood director James Cameron, of Titanic and Avatar fame, visited the oilsands region in northern Alberta a year ago and warned Canada the resource could become “a curse” if governments fail to properly manage it.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, the European Parliament has taken shots at Canada for the high carbon dioxide emissions and overall environmental toll of extracting and producing the raw bitumen — a molasses-like form of crude oil.

While oilsands development poses mammoth environmental challenges for industry and governments, it’s also helping drive the national economy, generating tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity across the country.

The Canadian Energy Research Institute forecasts new oilsands development will contribute approximately $2.1 trillion to the Canadian economy over the next 25 years. The group also estimates the oilsands industry will pay more than $300 billion in federal taxes over the next quarter-century.

Gary Mar, Alberta’s former trade representative in Washington and the front-runner in the race for the premiership, said the economic importance of the industry to the entire country can’t be forgotten. However, he is calling for an independent, world-class environmental monitoring authority to examine oilsands development.

Mar said an independent panel, producing objective scientific data, is necessary if Alberta and Canada are to maintain a “social licence” to develop the oilsands — the second-largest proven oil reserves in the world next to Saudi Arabia.

“It shouldn’t just be the government of Alberta saying we’re doing a good job, nor can it be industry,” said Mar, who’s leading in the polls heading into the first ballot. If no candidate receives a majority of votes from PC party members on Saturday, a second preferential ballot with the top three hopefuls will be held Oct. 1.

“We want to assure Canadians . . . and we want to assure the rest of the world that we’re doing this in a way that is environmentally responsible,” he added.

Christopher Sands, a specialist in Canada-U.S. relations at the Hudson Institute, a think-tank in Washington, D.C., said Stelmach’s departure opens the door for “a new conversation and a new face.”

The next premier can improve the country’s reputation and market access by adopting a more stringent regulatory regime that sends a message to lawmakers and environmental groups in the U.S. and abroad, he said.

Ottawa and Alberta also must get on the same page on oilsands development and promote a Team Canada approach, he added, rather than bickering over who has jurisdictional authority on environmental issues.

“Alberta can do something to make itself less of a target,” Sands said. “It would make consumption of oilsands oil guilt-free, or more toward guilt-free.”

Canada currently produces approximately 2.9 million barrels of oil per day, with about 1.6 million barrels coming from the oilsands. However, total oilsands production is expected to more than double to 3.7 million barrels a day by 2025.

Environment Canada data show the oilsands industry was responsible for approximately 6.5 per cent of the country’s annual greenhouse gas emissions in 2009, the latest numbers available, up from five per cent the previous year. Overall oilsands emissions have grown nearly 300 per cent since 1990.

Ed Whittingham, executive director of the Pembina Institute, an Alberta-based environmental research group, said the leadership race has “huge implications” on Canada’s environmental performance and the resource’s future development.

The approach adopted by the next Alberta premier, he said, will also heavily influence whether Canada is able to meet its greenhouse gas targets of reducing emissions by 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020 — the same target as the Obama administration.

Whittingham noted Alberta isn’t about to run out of hydrocarbons, but the province’s and country’s huge reliance on the oilsands leaves Canada vulnerable as more customers look for cheaper and lower-emission alternatives.

“The average Canadian should care because this is an increasing piece of our economy and it has been increasingly tied to Canada’s reputation globally,” Whittingham said.